N7 Rejects: 003 – Remnants
by N7Dante
Summary: The Reaper invasion has begun and the galaxy is at war. Teamed up with Tullius (a respected turian sentinel) and Tessia (a rather bipolar asari adapt), Scott and Rebecca are assigned to steal valuable data from a Cerberus compound on Noveria. Sounds like a pretty straight-forward mission, right?
1. Foreword and notes

**Foreword and notes**

 *** Disclaimer type thing**

Although the original characters and scenarios belong to me, this is a fanfic based in the universe of the game series 'Mass Effect', which is most certainly owned by the brilliant developers at Bioware and, to some extent, those publishing guys at Electronic Arts.

 *** Original concept**

I'm one of those that couldn't help coming up with little back-stories and personalities when playing as the various characters in the multiplayer part of Mass Effect 3. This led to me writing a little 'pilot' fanfic based on their adventures that often parodied well-known tropes and situations my friends and I came across while playing.  
I ended up writing and re-writing stories to go around it, developing the characters further, and trying to come up with something ME fans would enjoy reading.

 *** Notes for this story**

003: Set roughly 6 months after the second story, the main events of Mass Effect 3 have begun. Seriously, I have a timeline that coincides with the in-game codex, it's a complete cow-bag to keep track of.

 *** Special thanks**

N7Kate – my partner in and out of game, who basically introduced me to Mass Effect in the first place and gave me helpful feedback on the original concept story.

Edge – local comrade who has joined us in many online battles against the reapers, getting me hyped to write more.

Nick and Mack – for getting us through platinum difficultly and for being there when the galaxy needed us the most.


	2. Chapter 1 – Those that remain

**N7 Rejects: 003 – Remnants**

 **Chapter 1 – Those that remain**

There was talk of 'Reapers'. Even this mission had the isolated crew speculating the existence of such monsters…

[Year: 2186]  
[Location: The Troubadour, Arcturus Stream]  
[Mission: Scan for survivors and any usable resources]

The Systems Alliance frigate, Troubadour, came to a halt at the co-ordinates where battle had concluded barely two hours since.  
They were the first to arrive in the area since the Alliance's Second Fleet was abandoned to allow the Third and Fifth Fleets to escape the commencement of the Reaper invasion.

This was a personal mission.

Commander Martin Dodson stood before the ship's Combat Information Centre along with the head communications officer and the acting navigator.  
Three virtual windows displayed a feed from the ship's external front cameras that had the packed command deck stunned in silence.

The ravaged remains of Arcturus Station silently floated among a sea of its own debris and countless wrecked fleet ships.

"Anything?" asked the communications officer, and then again after hearing no response, this time with a noticeable quiver in his voice, "Anything?"

His deputy turned away from the scanners at the left side of the bridge and slowly shook his head; "N-nothing sir… there are no signs of life."

During this time, in the mess room, Rebecca Watkins had taken the liberty of re-programming a small databank to piggyback the outside cameras.

The viewing screens that hung overhead flickered from the cafeteria menu to the destruction outside as the engineer dusted her knees off; "That should be it, we'll be able to see now."

She re-joined the group and turned to the display, her eyes widening in horror.

The eighteen fully-armoured trainees were stood, now all gazing up at the display with a series of murmurs and gasps.

Scott Lawton canted his head to the left in confusion; "What am I looking at here? Where…"  
After a few seconds of realisation, his head snapped back up; "No way."

Seeing his home in ruins summoned several emotions, but one stood out stronger than any other. The man's fists clenched and his eyes narrowed with anger, this was personal, and in his mind, something that could have been avoided.

Rebecca held a hand out to grip the backrest of a nearby chair; "I… I need to sit down."

A two-second chiming tone was heard, denoting that a ship-wide announcement on the internal comms was imminent.

A second later, Dodson's sorrowful voice came through; "It is with great regret to report that Arcturus Station has been completely destroyed. Scans indicate that there are no survivors…"

At the CIC, Dodson stopped broadcasting as one of the navigators suddenly stood from his station with a look of pure fear on his face; "Sir! SIR! Our scans have attracted a Reaper! It must have been lying in wait!"

"What is…" started the commander before he fully processed the transferred read-out on his personal monitor.  
Taking all previous rumours and reports as fact now, Dodson quickly but judiciously began to consider his options.  
The likelihood of survival in a straight battle with a Reaper was slim and the safety of his crew took priority in his mind; "Evans! Get us to the relay now!"

Back in the mess room, Scott paced back and forth, agitated; "They're real! We were warned! We could have properly prepared! Why didn't the Alliance or the Council believe Shepard? Are they stupid or what?"

"In one strike… Forty-five thousand… dead," Connor McIntyre quietly said to himself in disbelief.

Takako Hibiki gently squeezed the seated Rebecca's hand; "Are you okay? You're shaking."

Rebecca stopped nibbling at her lower lip and looked up to her fellow trainee; "My parents were working elsewhere, so… they're alive… for now… but… everyone I grew up with… my home…"

As the engineer tried to hold back her tears, Scott punched the nearby wall.

Suddenly the interior was bathed in the colour red and a siren loudly echoed throughout the ship.

Scott glanced at where he punched, but didn't find an alarm button or any damage; "I didn't do it."

"We are under attack from a Reaper threat!" yelled out the voice of their commanding officer over the comms, "This is not a drill! All trainees and non-bridge crew to ready stations!"

The Troubadour shook violently from some sort of outside attack, causing the trainees to stumble while panicking over the existence of Reapers and their expected deaths.

The crew on the bridge were silent in concentration except when replying to their commander or giving vital updates.

Dodson studied the damage report, fearful that his escape plan had been upset; "Comms, send out a warning to all friendlies! Evans, how are we for light-speed?"

Ahead in the cockpit, the pilot was rapidly tapping at various interfaces while also keeping tabs on the pursuer via the rear-view camera feed; "That first hit skimmed us but took the FTL drive out, it's a miracle we're even moving at this speed, I'm sorry commander."

"Counter-attack!" commanded Dodson, hoping that it'd help cover their attempt to leave the area "Rear launchers! Throw everything we got at it and keep moving!"

The co-pilot sat next to Evans was already poised over various weapon and guidance system omni-screens; "Firing missiles!"

Out in the black, four Thanix missiles launched from the underside of the Troubadour and silently rushed through the vacuum of space.

The target was a 160 meter-long armoured squid-shaped ship that had opened up it's frontal plates to reveal a large beam cannon.

The missiles collided with the front of the Reaper causing what seemed like completely ineffective explosions.

The Troubadour's co-pilot checked various screens while Evans continued his course; "Minimal damage on target! What kind of shielding is that? It barely scratched it!"

"It's charging up another attack!" cried out one of the analysis team.

"Evasive manoeuvres!" commanded Dodson.

Evans pulled hard on the controls, trying to tilt the ship starboard as much as possible just as the massive red energy beam seared towards them.

The ship rumbled violently again, causing several crew members to stumble.

One of the ship engineers reported in; "Another glancing shot, but it's completely taken out our shield, one direct hit and we're done for."

Years of service had given Dodson ample experience in such dangerous situations where he had to make tough calls, but with a crippled ship against such a strong enemy, his options were limited.

He took to the ship-wide internal comms again; "Abandon ship! All crew get to the escape pods now! This is an unconditional order! All crew abandon ship!"

"Move it!" yelled Connor to the disorientated group of trainees.  
Upon witnessing how slow everyone's reaction time was, the human biotic then followed up with a light but fairly convincing threat, his right hand glowing blue as he raised it; "I will personally blast your asses out this room if I have to!"

"You heard the man!" followed-up Scott, despite many higher ranked trainees being present, "Let's not become part of that graveyard out there! Escape pods! Let's go!"

Dodson had to forget about his trainees for now and trust that they'd get themselves to safety.  
He now addressed the CIC directly; "Clear the bridge! No delay, I will not have any unnecessary loss of life. Use the remaining escape pods and get to the nearest rally point, reinforcements will come for us."

Without dispute, the crew began to shift out towards the stairs at the rear of the bridge as Dodson hastily walked to the bow of the ship.  
The co-pilot gave a stern nod and left as the commander entered the cockpit, but the head pilot made no indication of relinquishing his chair.

"That goes for you too Evans," ordered Dodson.

"I'm not moving sir."

"You know what happens to those who refuse my command."

"With all due respect sir, you need me here, I can fly this bird better than anyone."

Dodson used both hands to grab the pilot by the collar and pull him up to his feet; "You're still young, this is my responsibility, do not throw your life away needlessly. We're at war now and your skills will be needed."

Surprised at the commander's strength despite his age, Evans could only utter a startled; "Sir."

Dodson released his grip and pushed the pilot into his first steps out of the cockpit; "Now get off my ship."

Evans reached the doorway and looked back for a second; "Good luck sir."

"You too," replied Dodson as he sat in the seat, quickly working on various screens and controls.

Evans joined the group of other bridge crew-members heading down to the lower decks where the trainees were already present.

Rebecca came to a halt at the last T-junction and looked between her two options as various trainees and crew members split off to the escape pods on either side of the ship.  
In past drills, she had always turned right due to her navy ID number determining such, always disappointed that Scott went the other way.  
Knowing that there were some spare escape pods, she felt that she could easily go either way without causing a negative impact on the rest of the crew. This was no drill, life or death hung in the balance, and something was gnawing at her, like a bad feeling.

Scott was jogging up behind her; "What you stopped for? Keep going."

"Ah," wondered the equally puzzled Rebecca before making a rushed decision; "this side."

The two turned left and continued their regulation 'speedy but safe' evacuation jog down towards the port-side escape pods. This was seconds after Takako spotted her boyfriend heading down the right side and began to follow him; "Conn!"

Connor turned with a smile despite the urgency and danger, slightly more relaxed now that Takako had returned from her personal mission to collect some supply bags before evacuating. He planned to scold her later for making him worry.

The smile instantly faded as he saw the corridor ceiling above her head buckling and turning a bright searing orange colour.

Time seemed to slow as Takako enthusiastically jogged towards him, but Connor didn't waste a split-second, his body fully sprinting towards her, severe determination in his eyes.  
A blue aura flared around his body as he built up his biotic powers and despite Takako's sudden expression of disbelief, he didn't think twice about unleashing a shockwave directly at her.

The Japanese girl didn't even have time to voice the first syllable of his name before being flung back with surprising force, down past the T-junction and into the left corridor.

Her yelp attracted Scott and Rebecca's attention and they turned just in time to see a massive blinding red laser burn through the hull of the ship, the punctured ceiling, floor, and part of the wall now exposed to the harshness of space.

Yet more warning windows popped-up on the status screens in the cockpit. Commander Dodson was surprised that the attack hadn't cut the ship clean in half but there was little to be thankful for when explosions were now causing chain-reactions around the ship. He cursed, wishing that his past requests for more funding had been accepted. The ship could have had enhanced armour, shielding and weapons, all things that would have given them a better chance of survival right now.

Dread filled his being as the hull-breach was announced near the escape bays, his hands instantly reaching for the containment commands when they didn't automatically activate; "Everyone, please make it out alive."

Being born and raised for most of her life on a space station, Rebecca knew exactly how dangerous the vacuum of space truly was, but she had never experienced it until now. Due to the depressurisation of the corridor, it was trying to 'suck' her out into the void and it was greedily trying to claim her friends and the surrounding oxygen too.

Thankful that she was wearing her shielded armour for at least some minor protection, she clung tightly with both hands to one of the wall-handles that were used to help the crew get around when the artificial gravity was disabled. She half-wondered if the ship designers had also considered the current scenario in mind when installing them.

She refused to let her mind begin calculating how long she could hold on for, or how many seconds of consciousness in such conditions she had remaining. Instead, as she flailed like a human flag on a pole, she looked back in fear that she had lost 'him'.

Although three unlucky crew members had already been whisked out into space, Scott was still there. He was using one hand to hold onto a wall-handle further down the splintered corridor, his other hand gripping Takako's wrist.

Rebecca watched as he courageously took the extra strain to keep their comrade from the nothingness, terrified in knowing that without a miracle, it would all be for nought.

Scott had planned to say something comical along the lines of 'this sucks', but he was unable to even utter a single word, instead he gave Takako a determined glare to communicate to her that he wouldn't let her go.

She nodded the best she could, confirming her trust in him before looking back over the hole towards the right corridor. She couldn't see Connor anywhere, but with her eye-sight blurred, she could only hope that he was still on-board.

The pain in Scott's fingers that were wrapped around the handle intensified with every second, his arms and chest feeling the strain like he was being pulled apart from both sides. He looked back to his hand, trying to will himself not to lose grip.  
His eyes widened as his fingers slipped, knowing it was the end now, but still keeping a hold of Takako's wrist. They both sailed towards the hole like they were dust under a vacuum cleaner.

Rebecca deliberately released her hands on instinct, unsure why she did so since she knew nothing could be done to save them or herself.

She abruptly found herself crashing to the floor, Scott and Takako following a second later since they had started falling from higher up.

'Gravity?' wondered Rebecca, her mind in a haze before she got her bearings.

Ahead of her, in front of the hole, was a shimmering transparent blue mass effect force-field.  
The containment fields were placed every few metres within all corridors and, when working correctly, were set to automatically activate upon a hull breach.  
Despite it feeling like it had been a life-time of hanging on in a vacuum, the three drained humans figured that their experience had actually lasted less than twelve seconds.  
The filtered oxygen supply quickly returned, allowing them to take in deep breaths.

Rebecca put a hand to her mouth as she coughed and trembled, noticing several spots of blood over her gloves. If they ever survived this ordeal, she was going to highly suggest that everyone got checked out by a doctor.

Scott wanted to cheer and claim victory over 'the dark bitch that is space', but couldn't find the energy inside of himself to talk.

Takako was the first to stand and hurried towards the force-field. She rubbed her eyes and flinched before scanning the blackness of space. She was fully expecting to see her boyfriend's lifeless body floating along with the loose objects that had been sucked out of the ship.

For a second, she though he was among the three crew members who were out there, but none had his face.

Her vision turned to see the second miracle of the moment, across the hole, another containment field was covering the remains of the right corridor, and just beyond that, was Connor, pushing himself up from the floor.

Their eyes locked for a second but both knew there was no time for sentiment. Connor nodded with a weak smile and pointed behind her before turning, clutching his chest and heading out of sight.  
Takako turned to see Scott helping Rebecca up and joined them in heading towards the escape hanger.

The Troubadour held forty single-person escape pods, twenty on either side of the ship that could carry the full compliment of thirty crew members plus an extra ten in case of visitors.

At a glance, over half of the port-side pods had already been launched. With the right side of the corridor now cut off, any remaining crew members would have to turn to the port-side hanger and possibly fight over the remaining pods if the numbers were too great.  
However, with no signs of any other personnel, and by the sounds of distant explosions echoing throughout the ship, they doubted that they'd be joined by anyone else.

With time being of the essence, Scott croaked out a quiet; "Go."

The three quickly opened a capsule door each and sat inside, confirming the launches on the rudimentary control systems within, before the three pods were shot out into space.

There was nothing else that could be done now, nothing but sit and wait.

Rebecca buckled her seat-belt, made sure all the guidance systems were correctly functioning and then found that she couldn't hold back her tears any longer. She brought her knees up to her forehead and weakly sobbed.

The other two pods weren't far behind.

Unable to simply buckle-up and sit, Scott chose to half-crouch and release the additional exterior shielding to look out the porthole-style window that spanned around most of the pod.  
He could see Rebecca's pod and a few more much further in front, all homing in along the same path they were travelling.

Wanting to get a good look at his enemy, Scott looked at either side, hoping to catch a glimpse of the Reaper. Like most, he had only ever seen the one known as Sovereign on low-quality video-feeds after the attack on the Citadel three years ago.  
Frustratingly, the angle wasn't right to see it or the ship, causing Scott to punch at the reinforced window, his eyes burning with rage as if daring the Reaper to appear before him.

Takako had also uncovered the window on her pod and looked back as best she could.  
Upon seeing a sprinkling of escape pods in the distance, she breathed a sigh of relief. They were all from the right side of the ship, going on a different course than her own, but she knew that Connor would have made it aboard one of them and that they would be reunited at some point soon.

Although they would have launched about the same time, the line of seven pods already looked tiny due to the great expanse between them. The Japanese girl allowed herself a sentimental moment, putting her right hand against the window and imagining that he would likely be doing the same, looking out at her.

It came as an immense shock to her when she witnessed the entire line of pods being instantly vaporised by a large red laser blast…

Moments later, a shockwave was felt by the port-side escape pods as Troubadour, the home for the trainees for the past year, exploded.


	3. Chapter 2 – Data gathering

**Chapter 2 – Data gathering**

The war against the Reapers had sent the entire galaxy into disarray and soldiers were in desperate demand across every sector to aid in countless missions. The majority of highly trained personnel were already out in the field or dead, but a constant stream of highly crucial assignments continued to flood into the remaining deep-space and Earth-based command centres of the Alliance Navy. This resulted in some… peculiar compromises.

With the invasion of Earth, most major cities were in conflict, if not completely seized. One underground HQ had yet to be discovered by the Reapers.

[Location: Sol System, Earth, United Kingdom, Kendal, Alliance Intel Base]

"I'm just checking the squad profiles here," announced First Lieutenant Andrew Morgan, bathed in the orange glow of the holographic screens and keypads surrounding him.  
There was a pause as he looked over to his neighbour's terminal, half in disbelief; "Is this right? Did we get hold of Tullius? He's got an impressive track record."

An image of a turian with dark orange facial markings materialized on his screen along with a streamlined personnel profile.

Name: Tullius Nazario  
Species: Turian  
Gender: Male  
Class: Sentinel  
Division: 43rd Cabal  
Specialities: Tech armour, warp, overload, proficient in all weaponry, command and tactics

A glance over the 'notes' section confirmed Tullius to be a cautious leader and highly skilled solider who had decided to offer his services to the Alliance shortly after the Reapers began their attack on the galaxy.

"Yes sir," replied Woods, one of the admin staff, "he's already been assigned a squad."

Morgan smiled, entering the commands to look the squad up; "With his record and talents, he must have been grouped with the cream of the…"  
His smiled faded and his eyes bulged at the read-out; "Crap."

"Sir?" queried Woods, walking over to look at the screen.

Name: Scott Lawton  
Species: Human  
Gender: Male  
Class: Infiltrator  
Rank: N3  
Specialities: Tactical cloak, cryo-blast, explosives, hacking, assault rifle and shotgun use

Name: Rebecca Watkins  
Species: Human  
Gender: Female  
Class: Engineer  
Rank: N3  
Specialities: Combat drone, overload, incinerate, hacking, program creation, pistol use

Profile photographs of the two were displayed next to their data. The head-and-shoulders shot flicked between their bare faces and an image of what they looked like wearing their armour. Since the Reaper war began, nearly all Alliance personal, including these two, began to wear the more protective and up-to-date full-face helmets. Alliance armour had a specific appearance to distinguish class-types on the battle field and even the helmets matched this fact, with each type having particular inner-visual aids and modifications dependant on the class.

"These two," grumbled Morgan, "I know them well, two… rejects… with questionable backgrounds that have been unable to advance further than their current ranks. It's only by pure chance that they've even gotten this far. I've witnessed their botched promotion attempts personally."

Woods peered at the screen; "Says here they were among the few survivors that escaped the Troubadour when the Reapers first attacked. Most of the other trainees were unable to escape."

Morgan shook his head slowly; "That seems to be the only thing they have going for themselves. They have the devil's luck. We've had them on colony evacuation duties since."

Woods glanced over further statistics; "Ignoring their examination grades, they have an eighty-six percent success rate on missions. That's good right?"

Morgan sighed; "Not without excessive property damage and claims from the public, they're called the 'N7 Rejects' for a reason. I can only hope the fourth member is competent otherwise even the likes of Tullius will have his work cut out."

The fourth profile was swiped across with a hand gesture and Morgan seemed to relax.

Name: Tessia T'Loki  
Species: Asari  
Class: Adept  
Division: Nefrane Guard  
Specialities: Powerful biotic skills including stasis, warp, and throw, skilled pistol use

The image of a beautiful blue-skinned asari looked back at the two Alliance officers; "Ahh, good, some elegance to balance those two."

Woods began to read ahead and spoke out loud; "Has delivered head-butts to no less than three C-Sec officers, destroyed an entire mountain range, documented personality issues…"

Morgan caught up, reading along before nearly falling off his seat; "Has she got krogan blood in her or something? This is a disaster, she's just as bad! How could this have happened?"

Woods was already looking data up on his own console; "The computer grouped them together by matching their efficiency levels and psych profiles before assigning them Tullius as a capable leader."

"Manual override, we don't want to lose a good solider by teaming him with a bunch of rejects, if they don't get him killed he'll surely quit believing the Alliance to be full of amateurs."

"There is no one else at this time, they're the best of what's left sir," said Woods, concerned for his superior's sanity.

They both knew that new recruits were currently hard to come by, very few could spare the time to break off from their current engagements.

"Then we stall," began Morgan, "we can…"

"Sir," interrupted Woods pointing to his screen, "they're already on an operation. It seems Tullius pushed to move early."

"What? Where?"

"The research facility we recently found near the 'Ma Fahn' lab on Noveria."

***

[Location: Pax System, Noveria, Cerberus base]

"We're behind schedule. Speed it up Lawton," politely ordered the burnt-orange armour-clad turian in a calm tone.  
His body language made the command a touch more urgent as he anxiously looked back and forth between the stairs leading up to the landing pad and the unexplored L-shaped corridor nearby.

"Relax Tullius. They don't call me the hack-master for nothing," replied the human infiltrator, tapping away between one of the console keypads and his own omni-tool.

"Nobody calls you that," said Tullius plainly as he double-checked the ammo pack attached to his waist.

"Well, they should, because I've already cracked the firewall and will have the data in about…"  
There was a pause.

Tullius looked to the human's dark grey coloured helmet, wishing he could see the man's facial expression, and repeated back; "In about?"

The infiltrator's voice changed to a deliberately whinier tone; "No fair, another protection layer just kicked in. Since when was Cerberus this good at protecting their data?"

The turian sentinel shrugged; "Since we started systematically going to every Cerberus base we can find to hack their terminals I would guess."

"They so paranoid," laughed the human in yet another peculiar voice, causing Tullius to wonder if his teammate was referencing something from Earth culture again as he often did.

A large explosion from the room below made the floor shake, staggering the two Alliance teammates.

The human quickly looked to his squad leader; "Was that from where Becky's set up, or did a certain asari start the party too early?"

Gunshots echoed from around a corner down the corridor.

Tullius's tech armour crackled into existence and formed over his standard plating; "So much for subtlety. Lawton! I'm going to provide covering fire, you get that hack done."

"On it," replied Scott, already uploading Rebecca's personal code-breaking program to the system.

Tullius double-checked his M-92 Mantis sniper rifle and started sprinting; "Call if trouble finds you."

When the coast was clear, Scott's armour shimmered and he became completely cloaked, almost invisible to the human eye.

He began to quietly talk to himself in a slow deep voice as if quoting from an Earth movie trailer; "Trouble won't find me, I'll find trouble. When Cerberus needs taking down, I'll be there. When crap needs hacking, I'll be there. The master thief of the Alliance, the lone wol…"

Scott's cloak then vanished with dissipating sound.  
He continued in his normal voice; "… the guy who can't even finish a monologue before his cloak needs to cool-down. What's up with this thing? I thought I fixed it."

As Tullius ran down a flight of stairs, he listened to the sound of gun-fire and accurately predicted the positioning of the attackers before he even entered the large room. Stopping at the open doorway, he quickly checked the nearby left corner of the room and then to his right side before diving into cover behind a set of computer consoles. He was sure that he hadn't been spotted and so began to assess the situation.

Rebecca, the human engineer in yellow and black armour, was crouched roughly seven metres away to the right, working on her omni-tool. She peeked out of cover for a second to materialise a drone right in the middle of three Cerberus assault troopers that she had been trading fire with.

All three quickly turned towards the glowing orange sphere in surprise, but before they could react, it sent a powerful electric shock between them. The most battered trooper was launched backwards, his heart failing as he hit the ground. The second trooper's muscles went into spasm and his whole body flailed, his finger pulling at the trigger of his M-25 Hornet SMG and accidentally ending the life of his remaining comrade.

Before the trooper could even fully realise the horror of what had happened, Rebecca broke cover with a fully charged Arc Pistol held out. A bolt of blue electricity shot out and slammed through the trooper's remaining armour. As the man fell, the drone followed up with a second electric shock just for good measure.

The room was motionless and silent for a moment as Tullius looked on in awe, genuinely impressed with his teammate's actions.

Rebecca then scanned the area and noticed the turian; "Did you see that?!"

Tullius became suspicious; "Was… that on purpose?"

"Total fluke!" admitted Rebecca, laughing and walking towards the three fresh corpses.

The turain frowned; "I'm starting to think that at least two of my team aren't taking this all very seriously."

"I have no idea what you mean," teased Rebecca.

The human then placed both of her hands on either side of the motionless drone and pushed her own helmet-covered face towards it; "Good boy Fido, you is a good drone, yes you arrrreeeee!"

Tullius interrupted the 'moment' that the engineer was having with her drone, recognizing that 'Fido' was a common name that some Earthlings called their dogs; "You and Scott are doing this on purpose aren't you? Your joking around is going to get us killed."

Rebecca looked over to him; "For a long time, I used to think the same way, but when you get thrown into a war where everything is trying to kill you, I've found it's best not to take things too seriously. This has pretty much turned into a suicide mission for us, we're just trying to lighten the tension. It's… how we work. Trust us, we'll still get the job done and we'll make sure that we all come out alive."

Although it didn't exactly match the turian mindset on the battlefield, Tullius could understand the concept, but now wasn't the time for a debate on mission practice; "I'll be counting on you to make sure that happens… report."

Rebecca counted the summary points on her gloved hand; "I've cracked all the doors we need, I've also disabled the security monitors and communication systems so these guys won't be getting reinforcements. We wouldn't have even been detected if it wasn't for some guys going for coffee."

Tullius addressed his more recent pressing concern; "What was that explosion earlier?"

Rebecca nodded towards a doorway; "Tess was covering me while I worked, but then some git in a bloody Atlas turned up causing all sorts of bad. Tess used her 'space magic' to redirect a rocket it fired then drew it through there. I was going to follow but got pinned by a nemesis and these now-dead guys."

Tullius took one last look to make sure the coast was clear; "Let's go."

The two headed towards the next room, while Rebecca's drone slowly floated back up the stairs in the other direction.

Scott was still stood behind the access terminal he was hacking, occasionally tweaking his omni-tool options when no input was required. He had already stolen the required data, shifted some Cerberus credits to his own hidden bank account, played a level of 'minesweeper', and was now simply waiting for Rebecca's computer virus to upload.

A glowing orange sphere suddenly entered Scott's peripheral vision. On reflex he activated his tactical cloak and held his breath.

'Fido?' he thought, recognizing the drone as Rebecca's. He couldn't understand why it was drifting here, it was programmed to seek out hostile enemy targets within a particular range, yet the room was empty.

Just as Fido came along the other side of the terminal, the air seemed to 'bend' and a long samurai sword suddenly slashed through the drone, instantly breaking it apart and causing it to dissipate into nothingness.

The sleek female form of a phantom-class Cerberus assassin appeared with a haunting series of digital squelching noises, familiar only to those that had heard it and survived the encounter.

Barely a meter away from Scott, the phantom continued to slowly walk over the path that Fido had come from.  
Scott wondered if he had set off a security alert on the console. If that was the case, she was going to turn at the end of the console bank and check on the very terminal he was stood at.  
The best case scenario for himself was that she continued walking on down the stairs, but that would mean she would likely stalk and backstab his teammates.

Scott reached to the side of his ammo belt and retrieved a sticky grenade. With gritted teeth, he swiftly threw it with precision against her spine. It was fairly light and held tight but she would have felt it connect.  
Leaving his left arm held out, Scott tapped a quick macro button with a snow-flake icon, causing a cryo-blast module to fire from his omni-tool.  
At little over point-blank range, the tech-power connected and started to snap-freeze, interfering with the phantom's barrier just as she was turning around and trying to focus on where the attack was coming from.  
Without pause, Scott reached behind his back and pulled out his M-8 Avenger assault rifle and aimed, relived to see that the cryo-ammo indicator was still active on his weapon.  
The phantom was now in a defensive stance, already shrugging off the effects of the cryo-blast.

Upon pulling the trigger of his rifle, Scott's stealth-cloak powered down, revealing himself clearly to the threat.  
The phantom's sword rose in the air and her right foot shifted forward as if she was ready to leap over the console and take his head off. After two more squeezes of the trigger, firing as much cryo-ammo into the target as possible to cause damage and slow her movement, Scott ducked down behind cover. In that split-second, the sticky grenade attached behind her finally exploded after what felt like a lifetime to the adrenaline-pumped Alliance operative.  
Chunks of semi-frozen flesh and technology flew over his head and landed in front of him… sickening, but more preferable compared to the alternative.

Scott slowly stood up and peered over the console, still half-expecting the cyborg to be alive.  
Looking back and forth he made sure that the room was empty once more; "I would make a witty pun about ice or cooling off right now but I am terrified beyond all comprehension."

The computer unit nearby made a beeping sound, causing the man to scream out and flinch, holding his arms up over his face; "I'm sorry!"

He then realised the upload progress bar had reached one-hundred percent and smiled underneath his helmet.

After noticing a fully in-tact samurai sword on the floor, his smile turned into a series of manic giggles.


	4. Chapter 3 – Mopping up

**Chapter 3 – Mopping up**

"We're getting over-run!" called Tullius, his keen eye not moving from his scope as he popped the head off one of the distant enemies and quickly reloaded. He ignored the sparks caused from narrowly missing gun-fire on the wall just behind his position and lined up his next shot.

Tullius was camped up on a high scaffold while Rebecca ran between ground cover as Cerberus units poured in from various directions.

There was a shattering sound and Rebecca ducked back down behind what looked like a sturdy medical bed hooked up to monitoring machinery; "Shields down!"

Tullius's aim shifted and a headshot was delivered to the trooper that was laying down suppressive fire.

"Nice shot!" yelled Rebecca upon seeing the enemy's head explode.

With their attention drawn to another shutter ahead, opening to reveal more resistance, they didn't notice a lone assault trooper sneaking up with a fully charged electrified baton, ready to crack an unshielded Rebecca across the back of the skull.

There was a loud crunch as the blade of a samurai sword broke through the trooper's back and out of his chest.

"Whatda, wha?!" exclaimed Rebecca turning.

Scott deactivated his cloak and appeared, holding the sword hilt with both hands; "Who's the space ninja now?!"

Rebecca quickly waved down as a signal to get behind cover as her shield recharged; "Thanks, he would have clocked me good. Where you get the blade from?"

Scott let the corpse drop as he hid; "Oh man you should have seen it, I killed a phantom! All by myself!"

"Shiny," said Rebecca impressed, half concentrating on her omni-tool, "well you can help us handle the two that just came in with that group of assault troopers then."

"Eh?" blinked Scott, peering over to the mob.

"I also see at least one nemesis and…"

"No problem," interrupted Scott standing up and reaching over his shoulder.

"Scott, get down, you'll get-" started Rebecca.

"Coooobbbbrrrrraaaaaaaaaa!" interrupted Scott.

"What?!" exclaimed Rebecca and Tullius simultaneously.

There was a loud screech as a portable cannon-launched missile was fired across the room. In one massive explosion, the main bulk of Cerberus soldiers were wiped out and the few remaining quickly retreated to another room.

"Kill-streak!" claimed Scott in a deep voice.

Rebecca burst out laughing.

Their turian squad leader dropped from the gantry and spoke calmly; "That was our last cobra you know."

"Ah, be rite," replied Rebecca in a very Scott-like manner, "objective's been done, just gotta mop up and get out."

"Too true," said Scott, "now then, where's Tessia from Thessia?"

"In the next room," said Rebecca pointing across the way, her finger curling and slowly lowering as she remembered something.

"With an Atlas," added Tullius, trying to supress his annoyance.

"Oh…" gulped Scott scratching the back of his helmet, "I maybe should have kept that missile."

Bits of the destroyed far wall and ceiling began to collapse, drawing more attention.

Rebecca placed her right palm on the face of her helmet and shook her head.

***

Tessia, the blue-skinned asari adept clad in blood spattered purple and black armour, stood exhausted and surrounded, but that had never stopped her before.

She channelled as much biotic energy as she could and then screamed, sending a wide shockwave of blue out, staggering the five men that were circling her.

With some of the excess energy, she followed this up with a warp blast to one trooper's chest-plating. The trooper panicked as a blue biotic flame-like glow fanned out and slowly began to corrode his armour.

Spinning 180 on her right heel, Tessia raised her modified M-6 Carnifex in line with a centurion's helmet. The heavy pistol fired loudly, shattering the man's shield before a second squeeze of the trigger caused his head to explode.

She spun around again, but lowered her body so that some enemy gunfire harmlessly sailed over her head before rising back up.  
With another yell of aggression, she swung her left arm out and threw a biotic blast at her original target whose armour was still glowing blue. This set-off a reaction that caused a powerful biotic explosion, vaporising the man and sending two of this squadmates hurtling to the ground.

Tessia delivered headshots to the two downed men just to make sure they would no longer be a hindrance.  
That left one remaining guardian holding a heavy shield, unmoving out of fear, his M-358 Talon pistol lost during the explosion.  
Tessia sensed his terror and decided to put on a show.

Her entire body glowed with blue biotic energy as she slowly walked towards him and spoke in a low, sensual, but very threatening voice; "You… are going to wish you were never born. While under my stasis I'm going to take my sweet time flaying the flesh off your body, giving you the worst possible pain you can imagine, you'll be begging me to end your miserable life."

The asari raised her hand as the guardian trembled, trying to hide completely behind his shield… then his head fell off in a quick clean swipe.

"Huh?" blinked Tessia looking at her own hand in confusion.

Scott and his samurai sword de-cloaked just behind the remains of the now falling guardian's body and announced; "Kill steal!"

The blue wisps of biotic energy surrounding Tessia instantly vanished at the sight of her comrade but she still scowled; "No fair, that one was mine."  
She then did a double-take, her expression and voice taking a much softer tone; "Did you take that from a Phantom?!"

"I know right?" laughed Scott.

The other two squad members caught up.  
"Oh hi guys," waved Tessia, happily bouncing on the spot, her personality now completely unlike it was moments ago.

Tullius slowly shook his head; "I seriously must have been lumped with the most bipolar teammates known in the cosmos. How are we not all dead yet?"

"Becaaaaaaaause we're awesome," replied Scott.

Tullius grunted; "Can you try and take this all a little more seriously? This isn't some game."

"It's not?" replied Scott and Tessia at the same time, both deadpan for a beat before cracking up.

Tullius groaned, giving up, he had to at least admit that they were getting results. This of course required him to ignore the part of the mission outline being described as a stealthy covert op to simply steal data, as it was already fast becoming some sort of chaotic mini-war.

Rebecca looked to the laughing couple and then to Tullius; "Don't worry about it, come on, job's done. We should leave, right?"

The squad of four returned back to the main stairs and began to swiftly walk back towards the landing bay.

"Mission accomplished," said Tullius into his collar radio mic after tweaking a setting on his omni-tool, "requesting extraction."

There was a crackle and the team could overhear a confirmation.

"You know," smiled Scott under his helmet, "that was easier than I thought."

Rebecca patted Tessia on her back; "Yeah, I can't believe you took out an Atlas all by yourself. Good work."

"Huh?" replied Tessia puzzled, "I just damaged it, it retreated in an elevator back there, I thought it came up and you guys dealt with it."

Rebecca scratched the back of her helmet; "It must have come up as we were going down the other way."

Tullius had a pretty good idea where it may have gone; "Let's pick up the pace."

***

As the squad finally reached the extraction point, they were met with a fully repaired Atlas standing between two portable sentry turrets.

"Oh…" said Rebecca as the main cannon of the Atlas aimed towards them and the two turrets made a familiar winding-up sound.

"Shi-" started Scott.

"Get into cover!" yelled Tullius.

The four scattered under a hail of chipped metal. The two humans took cover behind some large heavy-duty crates, while the turian dived to the left behind a large pylon.  
The asari seemingly glided backwards in a blue haze and back down the stairs.

"Arrrrgggghhhh!" cried out Scott.

Rebecca quickly looked to him in fear but then she breathed a sigh of relief.

Tullius called over; "Are you hit?!"

Scott held up the hilt of his sword, the blade shattered in pieces on the floor; "Nooooooooo! My cool new sword!"

Tullius shook his head and then shifted out of cover to take a shot at the Atlas' canopy, the two turrets automatically focused on him and opened fire, forcing him to retreat back behind the steel pylon; "Watkins."

"Already on it," replied Rebecca working at her omni-tool and peering out.

Her orange hard-light drone appeared behind the enemy line, the two turrets had just enough time to turn 180 before a chain of powerful electricity ran through them, causing a pause in their actions and an unexpected yelp of pain.

A Cerberus combat engineer involuntary stood up from behind a small wall of armour plating.

"Where did he come from?" asked Scott launching a cryo-blast to ensure the new target didn't take cover again. The engineer suddenly found himself rather cold and struggling to move, a thin sheet of ice covering his chest and also blocking vision through his visor.

Rebecca quickly tapped on her omni-tool and held her arm out, firing off a small incinerate cartridge that flamed through the air. Upon making contact with the Cerberus engineer, it exploded, shattering the ice and covering the man in flames. He flailed wildly, screaming in agony.

"That's for repairing the stupid mech and setting up those rutting turrets!" yelled Scott.

The screaming was soon silenced as the body fell forwards to the ground, dead.  
The reprisal for this was a series of cannon fire from the huge mech.

The three bunkered down behind their cover. Scott's cloak activated and he vanished from sight, making minimal scuffling sounds as he moved.

"Where's Tess?" asked Rebecca.

A rather childlike voice from Tessia could be heard from the stairwell; "I'm squishier than you guys are, I'm going to hide down here, kay?"

Out of sight, she stood over the freshly dead bodies of three troopers and was aiming her pistol at another. She continued in a lower and more aggressive tone; "Well, I WAS hiding until you idiots got in my way."

With a loud crack of her gun, another trooper was down, un-required confirmation that Tessia was still more than pulling her weight for the team.

With only a shared nod needed for communication, Tullius and Rebecca both used the overload program via their omni-tools. This cause the atlas' shield to short out and weaken considerably, accompanied with wild blue sparks and a loud static sound.  
They both then quickly retreated as the two turrets destroyed Fido and rotated 180 again to reacquire their original targets.

Rebecca murmured to herself while watching a hail of turret fire fly overhead; "I'm so re-specing Fido again to cause an explosion upon destruction. Why did I ever take it off?"

The suppressive fire from both turrets was staggered, not allowing either the human or turian to break cover to counter attack.

The atlas pilot had now regained his composure and began to clunk forwards.

The words; "Have a banaaaaaaa-na!" were voiced from behind a cargo container near where the engineer had stood.

Scott had de-cloaked and thrown a sticky grenade towards the enemy, causing the turrets to turn and aim towards him while also distracting the atlas pilot who turned slightly.

This gave Tullius and Rebecca an opportunity to stand up and open fire, adding more damage to the grenade explosion that caused the end of the automated threat.

Now only the weakened atlas remained. Its missile launcher whirred…

"Everyone down!" yelled Tullius.

There was a clicking sound, and then a pause. The weapon system of the atlas seemed jammed.

"Luck-eeee," grinned Scott.

"Tessia!" called Tullius, "You done?"

The severed arm of a Cerberus trooper was flung to the top of the stairs.

"That'd be a yes," noted Rebecca.

"Follow up," commanded Tullius breaking cover and unleashing a warp blast that smacked into the atlas' canopy.  
Tessia ran up the stairs and screamed out as she launched a strong biotic 'throw' at the same target.

There was a huge blue explosion causing the atlas to stagger backwards but it quickly recovered and calmly levelled it's arm cannon.

A cracking sound broke though the air as a single shard of metal shot through the weakened glass shielding of the atlas, the pilot now slumped in his seat with a hole through his head. The atlas stopped dead.

Tullius put away his sniper rifle; "Clear, good work everyone."

Scott de-cloaked a few metres away; "So you're saying I didn't have to shove those grenades in its exhaust port?"

Tullius turned to him with a panicked expression; "You did wha-"

The large explosion could easily be seen half a mile up from the Alliance Kodiak drop-shuttle descending towards the exaction zone. The debris then slammed into various surrounding volatile fuel barrels causing several additional explosions.

Kevin, the pilot of the shuttle, watched on in disbelief as the entire landing pad crumbled and fell down, smashing into a lower fuelling station.

"You are kidding me," gasped Kevin.

This set off yet another even larger explosion that blew out the windows and half the wall of the lower level.

After about two minutes of further chain-reactions, the fire and smoke-covered site was finally silent.

The pilot activated his headset; "Um, anyone to pick up? Are you guys still alive?"

There was only static for a few moments.

Kevin swallowed hard and tried again; "Is anyone alive down there?"

"What?!" yelled a deafened Scott, "Please repeat!"

"Argh!" yelped Kevin, nearly falling out of his seat at the loud voice in his ear.

"Somehow," grumbled Tullius dusting himself off and looking around, "all accounted for. Please send us coordinates for a new EZ, the previous one has been… wiped off the map."

"Acknowledged," replied Kevin updating the squad's HUD details.

"What?!" yelled Scott again, "Where's that ringing coming from? ….. Whhhaaaaaaatttt?"

***

Now safely on-board the Kodiak, the four could finally relax.

The pilot informed them that no fighters were following them and that it would take thirty minutes before they'd be back, docking with the ship that acted as their main base of operation.

Scott removed his helmet and gloves before sticking a finger in his left ear and wriggling it; "Still ringing."

Rebecca also removed her helmet and took in a few deep breaths of unrestricted air.

The engineer then retrieved her spectacles from a compartment on her belt, requiring them now that the hi-tech helmet was no longer compensating for her short-sighted vision. Placing them on her face, she then began to scratch at her head through her short ginger-brown hair; "Ahhh, I've been wanting to scratch that itch all mission."

Tullius rubbed his forehead with both his hands; "The mission was to extract the necessary data, not blow half the site up. Command had their eye on that base."

"Lick of paint, it'll be rite," shrugged Scott.

The turian ignored the remark but studied Scott and his other two subordinates for a moment; "Naturally, as team leader, I've been reading the personal profiles of my squad members. I have to admit, I didn't quite believe how… destructive you three are."

Tessia let out a small laugh; "That was a mere fireworks display compared to some of my previous missions. Actually, that would be one of the few reasons I was kicked off-world and ended up with you guys."

"Tessia banned from Thessia," proclaimed Scott, still amused that her name rhymed with her home planet.

The asari continued; "One time I was on this dirt-ball that was infested with rachni, they'd killed a bunch of miners, yada-yada. Anyway, I was down in the mines trying to fight my way out and, well, you know biotics and gun fire can be quiet explosive... Not only did I not notice the left-over flammable canisters down there, but there were enough natural gases to turn the caves into a canyon."

Tessia clicked her tongue, deciding to skip to the end of her tale; "I hear they call that area Tessia's Valley now. So what about you two? Bet you have tons of good stories."

Rebecca's right eyebrow began to twitch and she nervously smiled to Scott, wondering if she really should reference certain tales; "Hey Scott, remember that time we were told there was 'no time for aerial bombardment' and you accidentally let loose those bombs?"

Scott held his hands up; "Hey, I didn't even know that shuttle was equipped with a weapons system, but damn, that was the shortest mission ever, talk about speed-run!"

Kevin called from the cockpit; "You said you'd never mention that again!"

"By the spirits," cringed Tullius, unsure if they were kidding or not.

"N-no innocents were killed though," said Rebecca fretfully.

The team leader couldn't tell if his headache originated from the explosions earlier or the realisation that his new squad were walking calamities; "You three have to be the most star-crossed soldiers I've ever met."

"Thanks," smiled Scott.

The asari waved her hand; "Sweetie, he means we're really unfortunate, disastrous even."

"That's not entirely true," replied Rebecca with concern in her voice, "I've been told I'm quiet lucky."

"That's right," laughed Scott, "Becky's like my lucky charm. We've got out of some deep jams together and okay, there might have been the odd casualty or burning city, but we still got the objectives done."

"Speaking of objectives," said Tullius taking out a datapad, keen to return conversation to a more professional course, "what do we have?"

"Just a second," said Rebecca sitting up straight and summoning her omni-tool, "I can share the data via the program I installed on Scott's tool."

"Wha!" exclaimed Scott surprised that his own omni-tool sparked into life without any input from himself; "You can do that?"

The engineer stuck out her tongue; "You gave me admin rights. If I wanted, I could make you cryo-blast yourself in the face."

"Remind me to never piss her off," said Scott pointing to his other two team mates.

"Interesting," said Tullius in an impassive voice.

Tessia grinned as Rebecca continued to fiddle on her omni-tool, sharing the data across all four squad members as well as the leader's personal datapad.

A small beep across each device signalled that the data was ready to view.

The asari licked her lips as she glanced at her omni-tool's read-out; "Looks like there's a lot here, command will be please."

Tullius studied his datapad; "Most of this seems to be encrypted."

"Actually," beamed Rebecca, "it was completely un-readable originally, my software has been running a mini-decryption routine since Scott first downloaded it. We have some details here but we'll be able to work on it better back at base."

"Oooo, you show-off," teased Scott.

The team leader studied the data carefully; "Project Phoenix… seems Cerberus is creating some sort of super solider."

Tessia growled in disgust, clenching her fists; "They've been experimenting on innocent civilians as well as their own troops?!"

Rebecca frowned; "The Illusive Man continues being a complete douche-head."

The three turned to Scott expecting to hear at least one witty or anti-Cerberus comment. Instead they noticed he was fiddling with a small dispenser device and the collected parts of the phantom sword he had picked up earlier.

Rebecca canted her head; "Are you actually trying to use medi-gel on that sword?"

There was a pause, followed by a very unconvincing; "… No."

***


	5. Chapter 4 – Getting to know you

**Chapter 4 – Getting to know you**

[Location: The Defiant, just outside the Argos Rho system]

The Defiant was one of the Systems Alliance's prototype frigate ships that Martin Dodson had taken an interest in before his death. Being larger and with better specifications all-round, he had planned for it to be a companion vessel for the Troubadour, allowing him to expand the experimental N7 fast-track program even further.

The Reaper war changed its fate and the ship now came under the command of Amelia Whitehall, one of the many senior officers that had recently gained a direct line to Admiral Steven Hackett.  
The Defiant was now one of the selected mobile bases for the execution of highly crucial operations that would tackle the challenges being constantly created by Reaper activity.

The survivors of the Troubadour consisted of eight crew members and five trainees. All but one of the trainees chose to join the existing forty operatives serving aboard the new ship.

Tullius took the main lift down to one of the lower decks and then walked down a corridor before stopping at an access control panel. The door slid open with a press of a button and he entered, easily spotting Rebecca who was alone at a large workbench, surrounded by omni-windows and various pieces of hardware.

"Rebecca," called the turian.

"Epp!" squeaked the human with a jump, "Tullius, ahh, I didn't even notice you come in."

"What has got you so involved?"

The engineer couldn't conceal her smile as she explained her latest challenge; "Well, since the Project Phoenix thing got took off our hands the moment we came back, a friend of mine wanted help finalizing a data-collection drone for use in future operations. The developers messed up and are after a quick fix. The specs call for long life, ID detection, low level VI with voice, plus shock defence. The only way they've been able to cram all that in on top of the data storage and scanners is to screw-up it's motor-functions. Ridiculous, right? It can't even move without being powered by an external source like an operative's omni-tool."

"A problem indeed."

"With more time I could have come up with a better solution, so for now I'm streamlining a few things and allowing it to gain a speed boost when more than one omni-tool is being used, but then that got me thinking. At least one person, if not an entire squad of four, would have to group up and escort this thing to a transmission point. They'd be a huge target for the enemy, so I'm trying to add a squad shield restore pulse that it can emit to help keep them alive."

"Very astute of you, I can see why you were trusted with such a task."

Rebecca blushed a little; "It's not perfect though and it's driving me crazy. I've come across several more problems that…"

The young woman suddenly stopped and began to fidget with her glasses, a look of embarrassment on her face; "Ahh, I'm sorry, I'm babbling away again, you've come down to talk to me about something, right?"

Tullius closed his eyes for second and nodded politely; "I'd sincerely like to hear more once you've completed the task, we might have to depend on such a drone in our own upcoming missions, but yes, I came to ask you a few questions."

Rebecca turned on her swivel chair to fully face him and quickly adjusted the straps of her dungarees to make sure that they were straight; "You have my full attention."

Wheeling over a spare chair, Tullius sat next to her; "Those profiles I mentioned before, can I assume your psych details need updating? I was expecting reserved, quiet, and timid."

Rebecca scratched at her cheek; "I guess I have come a bit out of my shell more recently, so to speak."

"Regarding our conversation during the mission, are you sure that acting like you have been is proactive and wise?"

Rebecca suddenly felt hot and uncomfortable, unable to answer or even look at her team leader in the eye.

The turian narrowed his questioning to try and coax her; "Despite accidental destruction and failed N4 exams, you are an impressive member of the Alliance. Out of the three, I'd class you as the most stable and sensible of my subordinates, but how you acted out there… you seemed more like Lawton, a trouble-maker who actually does match his profile. Bottom-line, I need to know my team is safe during missions, that you are obedient and can be depended on."

Although being questioned over her own actions and personality was relatively new to her, it certainly wasn't the first time Scott had been brought into question as a bad influence.

Rebecca became fearful of getting her teammate in trouble or being separated from him.

Finding courage to look up directly at the calm but concerned turian's eyes, she studied him for a moment. He had a right to ask such questions and she could tell that he could be trusted.

Gathering her thoughts, she composed herself with a deep breath; "I… I have been through a lot and I've had to develop in ways I never imagined I'd have to. With my upbringing, I was destined to be a technician and, had things turned out different, I'd probably be working on that Crucible project with my parents right now. I made a choice a long time ago to surpass all expectations, I wanted to prove myself and test my programs out in the field. I didn't want to be tucked away, working in the background. It was difficult and I was out of my depth, but not only did I advance within the navy, I got selected for N7 training."

Tullius nodded but remained silent while listening. This was what he wanted, for her to open up and let out everything she had been keeping to herself.

"During my first few missions, I was a wreck. Frequently freezing up or breaking down in tears. It didn't matter how smart I was or what tools I created, I was useless, but… I adapted in a particular way. I know some turn cold, numb their emotions, but I took Scott's example. The man can stare death in the face and he'll still crack a joke. It took me years to truly understand why he was like that and I couldn't help utilising such a coping mechanism."

Rebecca lightly smiled and gave a stern nod before finishing; "You have nothing to worry about, I assure you that I'll be a better asset to the team acting a little silly now and then, rather than panicking or over-thinking like I always have."

Tullius seemed to relax, his elbow now resting on the work-desk they shared; "Then as long as it doesn't endanger the mission or the team, I can turn a blind-eye to your… unorthodox methods."

"Thank you," said Rebecca, "and, um, sorry for worrying you."

The turian leaned in closer; "What about Scott? I will be talking with him soon, but would you say it's the same for him too? Can he be trusted in your opinion?"

"It's funny, not long back I was asked a similar question by a turian in C-Sec."

"Yes, I read about that too. Riding an elcor into battle, I had to read that paragraph a couple of times."

Rebecca chuckled quietly and nodded before a more thoughtful expression came over her face; "Scott has had… a rough time growing up, many didn't want him in the navy but he's proved himself more than a few times. He may act the fool and make mistakes, but when it comes down to it, he wants to succeed. I've known him for many years now and I've seen how much he cares for his team when out in the field, he won't let you down."

There was silence between the two for a moment, and Rebecca instantly felt like she had to fill the gap; "Oh, I have a good example. About 8 months ago…"

###

Knowledge that Commander Shepard of the Systems Alliance was responsible for the Alpha Relay incident spread like wild fire across the galaxy. The supernova-like explosion from the mass relay's destruction caused the complete annihilation of the Bahak system in the Viper Nebula. Over three-hundred-thousand batarian colonists were wiped out in a supposed attempt to delay an invasion from the Reapers, a threat that most of the galaxy considered nothing more than a myth.

Tensions between humans and batarians had always been high, ever since the two races first made contact, but now the pressure had increased to severe proportions. Many batarians saw this as a vicious and personal attack from the Alliance despite the protests that Shepard's actions were unsanctioned.

Terrorist threats and attacks were being reported by several human colonies across the Milky Way as small groups of batarians lashed out in anger.

The Alliance quickly mobilised response teams to quell the fighting, choosing marines that were closest to the threats. With the Troubadour already within an affected system, the trainees on the experimental N7 fast-track program were selected and split across two different hubs of a particular planet.

[Location: Exodus Cluster, Utopia System, Eden Prime, Hub 785]  
[Mission Brief: Protect the colony from terrorist threat]

Eden Prime was well-known human colony and several housing hubs across its agrarian pastures had been under attack for several hours. Human hostages had been taken and lives had been lost.

Rebecca was trembling, stood over the dead bodies of two human colonists and a batarian terrorist, her rapidly moving pupils jumped from each corpse and then to the surrounding buildings.

The death of the random mother was bad enough, but the young son also being executed right in front of Rebecca was having a devastating effect on her.

"Oh God," whimpered the engineer re-holstering her M-5 Phalanx pistol, looking all around but not registering a single thing, "I… ahh… oh God, no."

Scott, who had witnessed the hostage situation from afar, slowly walked up to her, his tone trying to be as comforting as possible; "You couldn't have saved them, he would have killed them whatever you did."

The girl turned around, trying her best to hold back the tears and a mental break-down; "They were innocent. I had them right there, but I couldn't…"

Scott's look of concern turned to one of seriousness as he knew he quickly had to change tact to get through to her.

Grasping both of her shoulders and glaring directly into her eyes, he could tell that he had her attention when she blinked and her pupils refocused; "Becky, we still have a mission here, it wasn't your fault. Come on, we can save others, hang in there until we're done, okay?"

"Scott…" started Rebecca, slowly coming back to her senses.

The familiar voice of Peter came in loud and clear over the communications with their helmets; "Guys! We got more trouble. The bastards have set up time bombs all over the place, barely have fifteen minutes. They emit a unique frequency, I'm sending to your omni-tools."

Rebecca gasped at the thought of even more deaths; "Can we disarm them?"

"Easy," answered Peter, "they're pretty crude, info's getting sent now. Abdul and I are going to clear the east side and evacuate the colonists. You guys locate and stop the bombs in the west side."

Abdul's voice butted in; "Pete, I'm under fire, need back up!"

"On my way!"

Scott looked to his omni-tool and turned on the spot while tapping at the mini-map read-out; "We better split to make sure we get these in good time. I got these two, you get these ones."

Two blips highlighted on Rebecca's map and she nodded; "Got it."

Hearing the stabilisation returning to his teammate's voice, he sprinted off; "All the fucking ice-cream when we get back, okay?"

There was that infectious positive tone again.  
A slight smile emerged from Rebecca's lips as she dashed off in the opposite direction; "Damn straight."

Scott increased his pace, running alongside a now empty community-building wall, slowing only to turn a corner when he reached the end.

A study of his mini-map while he accelerated again informed him of the closest bomb, but upon glancing up, he had to skid to a halt.  
Two batarians were blocking the way and they instantly knew what the human was planning.

"Don't move human scum!" barked one of the batarians.

The terrorists raised their guns and Scott slowly waved to them with his left hand, his omni-tool still active; "Hey there fellas, easy now, you got me."

His eye-line flicked to his raised omni-tool…

Two blocks away, Rebecca was crouched over a canister that was against the wall of a vacant house. She had already located the first bomb assigned to her and was close to disarming it. She allowed a small chuckle when she realized how easy to disable it was. The bomb was extremely basic, just as she had been told, but she remained cautious in case there were any nasty surprises.

She lightly bit her tongue as she focused on shorting out the timer using her omni-tool, quietly speaking to herself; "Just got to reverse the polarity of the neutron flow, and now we remove the transistor to be extra safe…"

There was an unexpected high-pitched beep from the bomb that made the engineer jump, but then she breathed a sigh of relief when she realised that it was a signal of success rather than an abrupt death.

Hearing the sound of scuffing boots on the ground, Rebecca turned just in time to see a submission net flying towards her. It forcefully pinned her back against the wall of the home, and covered her front like a massive spider web. The force caused the back of her helmet to smack against the surface and rattle her skull. Before she could get her bearings, a strong electric current ran through the net, causing her to spasm and scream out in pain.

When the electrified net lost its current after a few more moments, its prey slumped forward in exhaustion, but a fear-induced adrenaline boost allowed her to call out as she wiggled; "Help! Heeeeellllpppp!"

"Don't struggle," commanded the angry voice of her captor, "but do keep screaming, I want him to come here."

"Wha?" wondered Rebecca aloud, trying to regain focus.

The sight of a furious batarian was intimidating enough, but this enforcer was stood roughly three metres away, all four of his eyes glaring directly at her, his armour covered in large, sharp, blood-drenched blades. Worse still, he was recognized from the mission statement as Kalac, the determined leader of this group of terrorists.

The human engineer squeaked but said nothing more, petrified and unable to think straight.

Kalac clenched his fist at her; "One of your friends has just killed two of my brothers and I want to see the look in his eyes when I gut him for it."

The image of Scott being brutally murdered entered her mind, there was no way she wanted to be the bait for his demise. Although scared for her own life, she refused to reply.  
Rebecca had always been surprised that her service in the navy had lasted for several years, especially after joining the N7 program. Her own end was bound to come but she didn't want the man she admired to share her fate. She whimpered, realising that Scott could have possibly heard her earlier call-out.

The batarian pointed his kishock harpoon gun directly at her, a vicious sniper rifle that was frequently used by batarian mercenaries or slavers; "Call him! Now!"

A long metal harpoon fired out at high-speed and buried deep in the wall just left of her head.

She knew he missed on purpose to get a reaction but she couldn't help screaming in fear and then calling out; "It's a trap! Don't come here!"

Although not quiet the dialogue Kalac wanted, it would still work in his favour if her partner happened to be the chivalrous type.

The batarian began to pace left and right, lifting his chin to call out to the sky; "You hear that! I have one of yours! I'll kill her unless you come out!"

Rebecca struggled against the net as her captor paced before her, finding that she was unable to break free or reach any of her weapons. She froze again as he impatiently glared at her.

The female human gulped as repressed feelings bubbled to the forefront of her mind.

She suddenly seemed calmer and spoke openly while tears slowly trickled down her cheeks; "He won't come. You're wasting your time."

"You're saying your team mate will forsake you?" asked the terrorist, unsure if she was just trying to trick him in some way.

"I've known him for years," sniffled the young woman, "but there's no real connection, he barely notices me unless we're on a mission and needs my help. He treats me differently to all the others, he… he doesn't care, not in the way I want him too. I've always known it deep down. There's no reason he'd risk his life for me. I'm nothing…"

Originally, Rebecca started her speech to convince the enemy that no help was coming, but now, moments from death, she believed her own words and felt regret that her own introverted nature crippled any decent relationship they could have had.  
In the following seconds, Rebecca wondered if she could have been more out-going, more social or forward, maybe she could have been someone Scott would want to save, not just some awkward recluse. Despite the years she had known Scott, how well did she really know him? Did they really have a bond?

Kalac could see the honesty in her eyes and grew even more frustrated, realising that his bait wasn't going to be as effective as he hoped. Now she was just becoming a waste of his time.

Holding the kishock up again, the batarian called out, more in anger than expecting a response; "You won't come out? Fine then! She dies!"

Rebecca closed her eyes tightly and turned her head as much as she could against the netting that was holding her up like a dartboard. Her stomach involuntary tensed as if trying to harden her body against the incoming attack.

The sound of running footsteps on the low rooftop above her made her eyes snap back open and her gaze turn back to the front, just as she heard the release 'pang' sound of the kishock as it fired.

Squinting and then blinking a couple of times, Rebecca wondered why she wasn't skewered and why her should-be-killer appeared warped and 'bendy'.  
The explanation came to her quickly and she gasped.

From the batarian's point-of-view, his harpoon had suddenly stopped halfway through its journey and was now mysteriously floating in mid-air.

The mystery was solved as Scott de-cloaked with the harpoon protruding from the upper-right-side of his now cracked chest armour, his left arm held out towards the enforcer.

Before Kalac could reload or even utter a word, the human launched a cryo-blast cartridge directly at his face causing a muffled scream as his head began to rapidly ice-over.

With shrunken pupils and gritted teeth, Scott strode forward and raised his M-23 Katana shotgun, pulling the trigger and completely shattering the terrorist's head; "Nobody messes with my Becky!"

Scott stood still, his back to the hostage as he glared at the fallen body for a moment, before firing another point-blank shot into the now headless corpse.

Rebecca was filled with a renewed sense of value. All the doubt and self-loathing she magnified moments ago simply vanished. She was worth saving, she was thought of. Scott had heroically saved her and even called her 'my Becky'. Although she suspected that he still didn't think of her like she did of him, her love for him deepened more than ever.

She gushed with overflowing emotions as she hung in the net; "Oh-my-gosh! That was brilliant! Scott! You were amazing! Thank you so much! Wha, I mean, how did you jump in so fast and catch the harpoon?! Scott, you…"

The infiltrator finally turned around to face her, the harpoon clearly sticking out of his blood splattered chest, a playfully-guilty expression on his oddly smiling face.

Rebecca's running sentence continued into a couple of stunned syllables; "Baaaaaaaaaa-kaaaaaaaaa…"

The man slowly walked towards her, wincing with every step; "I wasn't fast enough getting here to stop him properly, wasn't really thinking there…"

Raising his omni-tool, a forked omni-blade, charged with electrical energy, flicked out, and with one downward swipe, his partner was freed from the net.

"You could have been killed!" panicked Rebecca, "I didn't want you to-"

Scott cut her off with a charismatic grin; "Told you, us Arcturus tykes should stick together."

Despite remembering those words as being some of the first he ever said to her, her worry was overriding all her emotions right now; "We need to get you outta here, you need medical attention!"

"Bit of medi-gel, it'll be rite."

"No it won't!"

Gripping on the harpoon, Scott tugged at it, trying to pull it out. All it did was cause his face to turn an even paler white and to make him flinch with a series of whimpers; "Ow, ow, oww! How deep is…"

"What are you doing?! It's the only thing stopping you bleeding out, leave it alone!"

Scott went cross-eyed for a second; "I have err, reconsidered the medical attention thing. Also, sorry, going to do something a bit uncool right now."

"Huh?"

The man's eyes then closed as he lost conscious and fainted to the ground, fortunately landing on his side rather than causing more damage with the harpoon.

"Scoootttt!" cried Rebecca, reaching for her medi-gel dispenser.

A huge explosion from somewhere behind her was quickly followed by another off in the distance in front of her.

The engineer's eyes widened, realising she had completely forgotten about disarming her second allocated bomb, and that Scott must have also left one active so that he could save her in time.

Peter's voice came through her helmet communications; "Are you guys okay? Couldn't you get to the other bombs in time? We got the colonists away but the hubs are completely destroyed."

"Peter!" replied Rebecca in a panicked voice, "Call in evac, it's Scott, he needs a medic now."

###

Rebecca paused her story and looked to Tullius; "Errmmm, maybe that wasn't the best example to use."

"Well," replied the turian canting his head, "it does clarify one of the many incidents that got you two labelled as 'rejects'."

"Um… yeah, one of the many..."

"However, in that particular case, your entire team saved as many civilians as possible and your actions didn't lead to further loss of innocent lives. Scott also proved himself to be a true team-player by stopping at nothing to save you, perhaps one day you will both rid yourselves of such a negative title."

Rebecca smiled and nodded despite her doubts; "With Tessia also being such a loose-cannon, you're the odd-one-out. I'm glad you're so understanding."

Tullius glanced to the closed door and then leaned in a fraction closer, lowering his voice a little; "I understand more than you realise. I too know what it is like to be outcast, to be seen as a threat or reject."

"You? Really? But I've seen your record, it's flawless," said the young woman, puzzled.

The turian clasped his hands together; "As you know, I have some small biotic ability, a rarity for our species and something that many in our military don't fully trust. After discovery, everything changed for me and I was reassigned to a cabal, a specialist team with other biotics. Many that I considered 'friend' turned away from me, the distrust and unease directed towards me was most upsetting."

A frown crossed the human's face; "That's… that's so sad."

"Yet it is a natural reaction I understand, one I should have been able to handle…"

The turian paused, thinking twice about revealing certain aspects of his story.

Sensing this, Rebecca nodded with a slight smile; "I imagine it contributed to the reason behind you joining the Alliance, I wouldn't want to hang around in such an atmosphere. It's weird that even after meeting all these other races in the galaxy, the wars and fighting, our own people can still hurt us the most."

Tullius silently nodded.

Rebecca then blinked with a realisation; "That said, how ridiculous is it that this Reaper war is banding all the races together? Even the batarians, who generally hate humans, are now working alongside us for a common cause. So many different beings across so many different systems, all fighting together to survive."

"It is true that I never thought I'd see such a day."

"I'd like to think that after we defeat the Reapers… 'if' we defeat the Reapers, the galaxy will stay united. No more wars, just everyone live in peace."

Tullius stood up and placed a hand on Rebecca's shoulder; "My experience tells me even that would be short-lived, but we can always hope."

***


	6. Chapter 5 – Weapon acquisition

**Chapter 5 – Weapon acquisition**

During this time, Scott and Tessia were in the rear hanger of the ship.

The asari gave out a small gasp, sure that she was starting to blush; "It's… it's so big."

Scott took in a deep breath and grinned, admiring the sight before him.

Tessia's mouth hung open for a couple of seconds and her eyes widened; "And, so long, I've never seen one so huge…"

"That's what she said," chuckled Scott.

"What?" asked Tessia confused, snapping out of her daze.

"Sorry, couldn't help it."

Guessing it was another vague Earth reference, Tessia went back to admiring the Black Widow sniper rifle on the workbench, lightly gliding two of her fingers across its long barrel; "It's a thing of beauty… I… I want it so badly."

Unable to stop the innuendos popping in his mind with every sentence, Scott tried to hold back his sniggering and looked up; "You heard the lady, she wants it bad. How much?"

The requisition officer behind the desk raised an eyebrow and then removed the sniper rifle from sight, placing it in the weapon storage room built into the hanger; "I told you, this one is mine, I was just showing you it since you were so insistent."

"Got any for sale, or can I order one in?" asked Tessia with a hopeful look on her face.

The officer cringed, a look of guilt on his face.

Scott rolled his eyes; "What happened?"

"What can only be described as a massive administrative cock-up," the officer replied, handing Scott a datapad, "one that nobody has the time or resources to fix right now."

Tessia peered over Scott's shoulder to read along, their faces dropping. A moment later, they both looked up to the requisition officer, simultaneously exclaiming; "What?!"

"Not my fault of course," defended the officer, "it's out of my hands."

Scott passed the datapad back, shaking his head; "So wait, wait. You're saying for the foreseeable future, during a frikking war against an immense galaxy-wide threat, you want me to hand over my hard-earned credits to buy a crate of completely random weapons that may or may not be utterly useless to me?"

"Yes… no refunds."

"Brilliant," replied Scott sounding oddly excited over the absurd situation, "I'm totally fine with this. Let's leave my fate to the RNG gods."

Tessia crossed her arms; "I really don't understand what you're talking about sometimes."

Scott winked; "I'll introduce to you some excellent video games later."

Moments later, the two were at the other side of the hanger, stood over a brown and white camo covered metallic container.

"It's like Christmas," grinned Scott, squatting down and caressing the lid.

Tessia smiled, remembering how much she enjoyed partaking in an Earthling Christmas two years ago; "So why'd you buy this type? Isn't it the most expensive?"

The human chuckled as he pressed a few buttons on the lock-pad; "I figured if it's gonna be random stuff, might as well have a chance of getting 'rare' random stuff… besides, this one's on Cerberus, I totally hacked one of their accounts on that last mission."

"Nice."

"Now," said Scott, holding his hands together as the lid of the crate clicked open, "time to pray to R-N-Geesus. Come on, come on."

Scott reached inside as the lid fully rose up, pulling out the first thing he touched; "It's a... um…"

Confused as to what the rectangular item was, he held it towards Tessia who instantly recognized it; "It's stunner attachment for heavy pistols, you know, some extra kick for when you want to punch people with your gun."

"But I don't use pistols, I use shotguns to blow bad guys heads off. Maybe the odd assault rifle if they won't let me get close enough to blow their heads off."

"I'll take it."

"It's yours," sighed Scott dropping the mod into her out-stretched hand.

Tessia held the muzzle attachment towards her own face and rubbed her cheek against it a few times like it was a new prized possession or a kitten.

"Medi-gel, explosive ammo, an amp" counted-off Scott as he placed the content on the floor before gasping loudly and pausing.

The asari looked over with excitement; "What is it? What is it?"

Scott pulled out a sleek looking assault rifle ; "Only the frikkin Prothean Particle Rifle!"

"Is it good?"

"Damn straight," grinned Scott, "no ammo needed and it blasts a fair dist. Heard some people struggle using it though, crazy beam laser times. Aw man, I wanna see Becky fire this thing, it'll be hilarious."

Tessia glanced to the ceiling for a second; "I did notice that Becky favours her omni-tool over any other weaponry."

"Yeah, she only carries a pistol as back-up," explained Scott before chuckling to himself over a memory; "I remember our first weaponry trails when we joined the navy…"

###

[Year: 2175]  
[Location: Training Hall 5, Arcturus Station, Arcturus Stream]

Before becoming a squad coordinator for the current N7 operations, Second Lieutenant Andrew Morgan was frequently invited to oversee various Alliance weapon and tactical trials, often becoming an additional examiner for various tests.

Although originally impressed with the blue uniformed cadets, he was completely baffled after seeing a certain individual's display.

"Well," smiled Scott, "I did destroy the target."

Morgan shook his head; "We were focusing on aiming over a distance. You ran up to the target and fired at point-blank range."

"That's what I do, and on the field I'd have a tac-cloak, they'd never see me coming, boom! Besides, you never actually said I couldn't go past the line."

"I would have assumed it was a given."

"Out of the box thinking sir, or in this case, across the line thinking."

Morgan failed to see any discipline in this particular cadet and made notes on his datapad, deciding to have words with the subject's commanding officer later. For now, he just waved him on, not wanting to waste any more time.

Scott stood back in line with the other cadets as Rebecca's name was called.

Morgan ran through his standard dialogue; "Use the three weapons in order and hit the three targets, your score will be calculated on how many shots you use and the time you take from your first shot. You may use any modifications supplied but they will deduct from your score… also, do not step over the very obvious white line."

Examining the work bench, Rebecca took the Katana shotgun from the tray labelled '1' as a blue holo-target in the shape of a human appeared two metres away from the white line.

The weapon felt surprisingly heavy, something she hadn't been expecting after recently watching the other females cadets wield it with ease. A show of confidence was what she prioritised right now, she couldn't show herself up in front of her colleagues.

Briskly stepping up to the line, she raised her weapon, knowledge of the exercise's programming running through her mind.  
Any hit on the hologram would cause a red circle to appear at the point of impact. After a predetermined number of hits, or upon hitting what was classed as a 'vital area', the entire target would turn red to signify a kill.

After watching previous cadets, she had calculated the spread of the shot, knowing that she didn't have to waste precious seconds on being precise. One good blast would do the trick, easy.  
She squeezed the trigger.

As predicted, the flying shrapnel peppered the holo-target, causing enough damage to turn the whole humanoid shape from a shimmering blue to a dull red colour.

What Rebecca hadn't considered, was the recoil of the shotgun and her stance at the time.  
Tripping over her own feet, she fell backwards with a small yelp, her finger consciously off the trigger to make sure there were no further accidents as she hit the hard floor.

One of the cadets in the line to the side sniggered, causing a few other quiet laughs from surrounding students.

Scott was suddenly stood behind the initial laugher, whispering into his ear with a deadly serious tone; "How bout I put you on floor? See if you're still laughing then?"

The cadet turned slightly to see who had just threaten him, the grin instantly draining off his face when faced with what could only be described as a death-glare.

"Lawton!" snapped Morgan, "Back in line!"

Holding the warning glare for a second more, Scott returned to his place.

The examiner rolled his eyes as he turned back to see Rebecca pushing herself onto her feet, her face red with embarrassment.

"Um, I'm, I'm m-much better with an omni-tool," stuttered the engineer as she returned the shotgun to the first tray and removed a Lancer assault rifle from the second.

"Well then I'm sure you'll do better with next week's tests, remember, you're on the clock," replied Morgan.

Speed now had to be prioritised, the precious time wasted from falling nagged at her despite trying to concentrate on the task at hand.

The second target bearing the number 2 was at 'mid-range' in the shooting gallery. More refined aiming would be required here but after seeing previous cadets nail it in fewer than six seconds, she had confidence that it couldn't be too difficult.

Squeezing the trigger, the rifle sprayed wildly above the target and to the right. Trying to redirect the fire caused sparks to dance off the floor beneath the target.  
Rebecca began to panic over her constant misses, her index finger held tightly on the trigger.

'A bit higher,' she thought, tilting the muzzle slightly higher to no avail.

Paranoia over dropping the weapon due to all the rapid vibrations from the constant shots began to set in; 'Please hit…'

There was a click and a rapid beeping sound as the gun stopped firing.

Rebecca gasped, feeling her own heart skip a beat as she realised that she had overheated the rifle.  
Taking her finger off the trigger, she glanced over to Morgan for a second, watching him tap-away on his datapad, no doubt writing her up for stupidity.

The cool-down of the weapon seemed to last for ages in Rebecca's mind, the room quietly watching her, the odd mumbled whisper being heard.  
She considered attaching a stabilization module, but reckoned any further lowering of her score would probably place her in whatever the opposite of the 'hall of fame' was.

At this point, she calculated only Scott had a lower score than her, and that was only because he disqualified himself.

She didn't dare look over to see if he was watching her; 'He must think I'm a complete idiot.'

Closing her eyes for a moment, Rebecca took a deep breath and took aim again, this time pulling at the trigger in short bursts rather than holding it down. After three attempts, she finally hit the target, the red glow of success allowing her to continue breathing normally.

Quickly turning, she jogged to the work bench to switch weapons before returning to the white line.

She studied the third target, its distance over three times further than the first, worrying again over how much more time she'd end up wasting.

The Kessler pistol felt comfortable in her right hand, much lighter and easier to hold than the previous two weapons. After three missed shots, she paused, mindful of overheating.

Holding the pistol steady with both hands now, she squeezed off another shot, it sailing just over the top of the target's head.

Rebecca half closed her eyes as her nose twitched; "ACHOO!"

Her eyes quickly snapped open, panicking due to the fact that she felt her trigger finger tense during her sneeze.

The gasps and murmurs from the watchers caused her to wonder if she had accidently injured a real person.

Two red circles had appeared on her final target, one directly in the centre of the forehead, and one where the crotch would be.

"Ooo," started Rebecca, putting a hand to her mouth, stopping herself before she apologized to the target.

The entire hologram turned red to confirm a 'kill' and the murmurs, mostly asking if she had done that on purpose or not, became louder.

Morgan tapped away on his datapad.

***

The training hall was now empty, save for one lone figure.

Training pistol in hand, Rebecca had spent the last hour firing glancing shots at various re-spawning practice targets, finding it even more difficult to hit the moving ones.

Her arms ached and her stress-level was at a new high despite having the privacy to train alone. Self-doubt over her decision to join the navy resurfaced to the top of her thoughts.

A voice called out from behind; "Ya alrite kid?"

Rebecca suddenly spun around in surprise, her gun held out at the source of the voice.

Scott quickly squatted down, his hands held up over his face; "Whoa! Don't shoot!"

Lowering the pistol, she was about to blurt out at least five apologies, but the adrenaline causing her body to shake right now made her more defensive; "Why'd you sneak up on me?"

"It's natural, I'm a ninja ya know. I'm going to be an infiltrator."

"I could have shot you."

"Not likely, I've seen you shoot," grinned Scott, sticking his tongue out.

Rebecca seemed to slump in place and glanced to the floor for a moment; "That's why I'm here, while everyone else is winding down for the night… it was highly suggested to get in some extra practice."

Scott shrugged; "I was thinking of doing the same, I'm not really a pistol guy, I should probably get used to other weapon types."

A smile began to form on Rebecca's face; "I thought it was great how you just ran up to the last target."

"Heh, in my opinion, pistols are for close range, that third weapon should have been a sniper, stupid test. I still got the job done and didn't miss a shot."

"Where as I played by the rules and could barely hit a thing."

"Cept that sneeze, that was amazing."

Rebecca slowly shook her head; "Total fluke…"

"Listen," said Scott as he walked over to the work bench, "there's something here I think you should use, at least until you get more used to shooting."

Walking back over to her, Scott placed a laser sight attachment into her free hand.

"A laser sight?" asked the young woman with a frown, fearful of future teasing.

"It's nothing to be ashamed of," said Scott scratching the back of his head, "we all got our best and worst qualities. If there's stuff out there to help, why not take advantage? Heck, I've even heard about some gun the Alliance has developed that has a laser sight built-in as standard. There's already a lot of hype about it."

Attaching the mod, Rebecca turned back to the gallery, training the red dot on the body of one of the targets and scoring a hit just off from where she was aiming for.

"I still have to calculate the kick-back," thought Rebecca aloud, "gravity over distance… but at least I hit first time."

"You'll get used to it, try not to think about it too much, now try one of the moving targets, remember to lead your shots."

Settling the red dot on a moving target, she followed it around for a moment and then moved off to fire a shot where it would be seconds later.

The target turned red and the girl span around beaming; "I did it! It helps so much, thank you!"

Scott gave her the thumbs up; "No problem, hey, maybe later after this you can give me a few pointers with the omni-tools."

"Sure!"

###

Tessia smiled; "Aww, that's such a sweet story. You must care for her a lot."

Scott nodded and decided to reveal a fact he had previously not shared with anyone; "I remember a few minutes before I first met her, I found out she had grown up on the same station as me but I had never seen her. I talked to a few people and found out some stuff about her and I realised that she was very similar to me in many ways. Let's be fair, anyone similar to 'me' would need some help… I decided right there and then that I'd make sure no one would mess with her like they do with me, I'd treat her like my own sister. During the years I've known her, she pretty much became the closest thing I have to family."

The asari was hesitant to ask, but since the topic was active; "Your parents…"

The human replied quickly as if it was a common answer he often gave out; "My mother was great but died too soon, the less said about my father the better."

Tessia quickly nudged him with her elbow to avoid the moment turning sombre; "You want to hear about family problems? You will laugh your ass off at some of the things I could tell you."

Scott closed the lid of the weapon crate; "Sounds like fun, a proper 'getting to know you' session. How bout we go up and get some drinks?"

"Oh," nodded Tessia rapidly, "drink will most certainly be required for some of these tales."

As the two turned to walk towards the lift, they nearly crashed into Tullius who had somehow snuck up on them; "Ahh, just the two I was looking for."

"Drink?" offered Scott meekly.

***

Back in the hallway just outside one of the development labs one floor up, Rebecca's sneeze could be heard from inside, followed by a data-collection drone's voice; "Threat detected. Commencing counter-measures."

"What?! I'm not a threat you stupid-"

The sound of an electrical discharge cut her off.

"Did you just try to shock me?!"

The sound of a chair hitting the floor, several crashes, and a series of electronic beeps followed. After a brief pause, a minor explosion could be heard before the doors slid open.

A drained and rather singed Rebecca flopped forward onto the hallway floor, her chin resting on the surface; "Urrrrhhh, sometimes… I just can't win, can I?"


End file.
